2024-11-23T19:51:24-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150167717/new-graphic-novel-is-set-in-peter-zumthor-s-therme-vals-in-switzerland Sean Joyner 2019-10-31T18:27:00-04:00 >2024-10-25T04:07:38-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/ec/eceb34cd73f6625e342a0e94ccc95439.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p><a href="https://archinect.com/zumthor" target="_blank">Peter Zumthor</a>'s Therme Vals, the hotel and spa in Switzerland, was designed intentionally devoid of clocks so that visitor's sense of time would be suspended and immeasurable. Completed in 1996, there is a legend about a mountain in the village of Vals that is said to have a mountain that periodically swallows people.&nbsp;</p> <p>In his debut graphic novel,&nbsp;<em>Swimming in Darkness</em>, cartoonist <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lucas.harari/" target="_blank">Lucas Harari</a> builds on this modern mythology. The new publication centers around an architecture school dropout named Pierre, who, after a breakdown, travels to Vals to visit Zumthor's baths, which were the subject of his unfinished thesis. Upon his arrival, Pierre discovers secret rooms within the Therme Vals and attempts to uncover their hidden truths.</p> <figure><p><a href="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/71/711864fb0638fd496a40c4e38e06625f.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;enlarge=true&amp;w=1028" target="_blank"><img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/71/711864fb0638fd496a40c4e38e06625f.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;enlarge=true&amp;w=514"></a></p></figure><figure><figure><a href="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/ce/ce1cacb9e575ab54f7397810cb046d57.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;enlarge=true&amp;w=1028" target="_blank"><img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/ce/ce1cacb9e575ab54f7397810cb046d57.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;enlarge=true&amp;w=514"></a></figure></figure><p>This psychological thriller drops the reader into Zumthor's work and uses it as a vehicle to explore this young protagonist's existential predicament. Concerning the work, Lucas Harari said:</p> <p><em>I visited the thermal baths of Vals as a teenager and the place str...</em></p>